


don't look back

by 9luciddreams (1degenerates)



Category: Fish Tank (2009)
Genre: Consensual Underage Sex, F/M, Older Man/Younger Woman, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27430735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1degenerates/pseuds/9luciddreams
Summary: Mia and Billy are on their way to Wales when someone from Mia's past resurfaces.
Relationships: Conor O'Reily/Mia Williams
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> a completely unnecessary follow up to the movie that no one asked for but wouldn't leave me alone.

Mia would miss Tyler. Her blunt and coarse way of telling the truth. It could be excused because of Tyler’s young age and the fact that every word or insult that tumbled out of her mouth spoke volumes of each situation. It made the people around her stunned and yet they accepted the smack back into reality.

Mia would miss Tyler. And she hates it.

The radio was on, but was turned ridiculously low so all that was heard was the faint bass and the singer’s probably profound lyrics were muffled beyond recognition. Billy turns his head from the steering wheel and glances at Mia. He really did think that she changed her mind about coming with him and decided to not go to Wales with him. So when she walked out of her apartment, a bag slung over her shoulder with her sister in tow, he was really glad she didn’t.

Mia catches his movement out of the corner of her eye and gives him a quick smile and looks him over, possibly doubting her decision a little. Overall, she knows that leaving home was probably for the best. She doesn’t want her life. She doesn’t want to end up like her mother, a washed-up, bent-out-of-shape sleaze who still dressed like she was a teenager and acted like one, too. Mia doesn’t want to be a drunk who painted on her face and was fading faster and faster as each day went by. She doesn’t want to regret her decisions the way Joanne so obviously regretted her and Tyler, especially her.

It was the reason why she brusquely left the audition with such venom in her eyes as the opening strains of Bobby Womack’s “California Dreamin’” played out in the venue. She loves to dance, but she didn’t dance for others; she dances to escape herself and the situations that she inadvertently put herself in. As she was thinking these things over, the long lost notes of the song floated through her mind. She shakes her head as if to rid herself of that one night she actually danced for someone other than herself.

Billy looks back to the road and absentmindedly begins drumming his fingers on the wheel to the music that still almost silently drifted through the space between them in the car. Mia looks out the window and wonders where life would take her now.

***

The drive carries on for a few hours, eventually becoming boring at some intervals. It was almost like the day trip that Conor had taken the three girls on that one afternoon that seemed so distant from Mia’s memory. It was the slight déjà vu of the event coupled with the comfort and closeness of Billy that prompted her to ask him the question that Conor had randomly inquired of them that day.

“If you could be an animal – any animal, which would you choose?”

Billy doesn’t seem to be listening too closely at first and his face reflects the slight confusion he felt as a result of spacing out and so, Mia has to repeat the question. Billy seems to be contemplating what she had asked, but then decides to get her answer before he gives her his response.

“What would you be?” 

Mia keeps her same answer from before when a different interlocutor had framed the supposed revealing question.

“A white tiger.”

Billy’s eyes widen a bit and he chuckles at her terse reply.

“That’s you, alright. I guess I’d be a horse. Kind of like the one…”

Mia instantly knows exactly which one he was referring to and roughly turns her head toward the window, which was almost all the way rolled down except for a sliver of the pane sticking up from the doorframe.

Billy abruptly stops talking once he sees how it affected Mia, blinks a few times in succession and turns his head, yet again, back to the road.

“You wouldn’t want to be anything that could fly?”

Billy is so grateful that Mia wasn’t too upset by his previous comment and so carries on with the conversation.

“No. I mean, what if I was shot?”

Mia quickly swung her head around and facing him, smiled a real big appreciative smile. There was some sort of humour that twinkled in her eyes as she seemed to look at Billy with a new consideration and he wonders briefly what it meant. 

“Yeah,” was Mia’s distracted reply that escaped from her lips as she continued looking at Billy in that indistinct way she had just recently developed.

The car ride was met with silence the rest of the way to the motel. At some point, Mia stuck her arm out of the window and then her whole head to feel the breeze and freedom that welcomed her.


	2. Chapter 2

They arrived at the motel fairly late at night, as the sky no longer held the sun and the streetlamps burned their fluorescent glow. Billy gets out of the car and goes to rent a room for the night. Mia slowly steps out of the car, but stays behind and leans against the car door. She looks up at the motel sign that advertised £32 for one night. 

Mia thinks back to when she asked Billy that question about the animals and wonders why she did it. She wonders why she thought of Conor and why she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

He is such a dick. 

And he knew it, alright, but Mia still likes him, regardless of that fact. Hell, she likes him enough to have sex with him when she knew and he knew that it was completely wrong to do so. Conor and the effect he had on her obviously made Mia think a lot of stupid things and made her do a lot of stupid things. Even more so than she’d ever done before.

Billy walks out of the building and goes to get their bags out of the boot. Mia grabs her stuff and follows him to the room they were assigned for the night. He jams the key into the slot and turns the handle, the door opening up to reveal a very seedy looking room. Neither was very surprised.

“I’ll sleep on the floor. You take the bed,” Billy offered to Mia after both of their assessments of the room. 

“What, that bed is big enough for both of us. We can both fit, it’s alright,” Mia argued. 

Billy concedes to her statement because he knew she would fuss about it if he didn’t agree with her. Both were dead tired from the drive and got ready to go to sleep. Billy went into the toilets as Mia got under the covers. She was turned on her side facing the wall when Billy returned and peeled back his side of the bed.

“You alright?”

“Yeah,” was all that Mia tiredly replied with.

She was still thinking about Conor and every moment they had that was tinged with this unnamed and uncalled for tension that existed whenever they were within proximity of one another. 

Ever since their first encounter that morning in the kitchen, when he caught her in a private moment dancing along to a JaRule music video featuring Ashanti, there was always this heightened tension that he tried to stave off with playful banter and cheeky comments. She was new to the game and so she answered his attentions with attitude and yet, his encouragement of her dancing made Mia warm up to him in a way that she could never fully explain or understand. She was usually so rude and insensitive in interactions with other people.

Mia always kept on her guard with people and yet, with Conor she unconsciously let it down every time he smiled that toothy smile at her. She could see it in his eyes – that spark of something that promised her that she was worth more than what the rest of the world told her, what her mother had cruelly barked at her, what those sleazy dancer girls she used to call friends had taunted at her that day in the lot. Mia couldn’t help but want to be around Conor and his seemingly carefree and amiable personality, especially since he opened her up with so little effort.

Billy adjusts his body under the covers; the sheets were extremely stiff and he wasn’t used to being so restricted in his own bed back at the traveller camp. Mia notices, but makes no move to help free Billy from the over-starched straight jacket this motel called sheets. He assumes that she had fallen asleep and this was confirmed to him by softly calling her name and gently nudging her arm to receive no reaction from her lax form.

He soon drifts off, giving up hope of freeing himself from the cotton cocoon, while Mia’s thoughts still swim with Conor, Conor, Conor. She wants to punch a hole in the wall. She wants to break something, anything really. She wants to scream so loud that her voice would give up and die. Anything to purge her Conor-centered thoughts.

Hadn’t he done enough? He obviously hates his life and has problems with his wife. He decides to slum it one night with her mother and for some bloody reason, he decides to stick around. Mia wasn’t foolish enough to really believe that she was the exact reason for Conor’s frequent visits, but she liked to imagine he was just as taken with her as she was with him. I mean he did fuck me, after all. But again, she wonders if it was only for the thrill or did he really enjoy her company?

Now she would never know because Conor wanted nothing to do with her. That happens when you kidnap someone’s kid. Then again, she didn’t really want much to do with him either, considering he took advantage of her trust and her body. She just wished she didn’t like it so much.


	3. Chapter 3

Mia didn’t sleep much that night and Billy wants to get an early start. Again, they were situated in the car, the growling engine taking over what was previously the radio’s job as background noise. Mia still looks longingly out of the window, which was rolled all the way up today. Billy was still a little bit sleepy and it showed on his pale face and in his bleary eyes.

They’d been driving for about two hours and Mia couldn’t take the boredom of sitting in a car anymore so she struck up a conversation with Billy about what they would do in Wales.

“What do you think we’ll do once we get there?”

Billy looks over at her and then looks back at the road.

“Some guy I used to know lives in Cardiff. So, we will probably bunk down there for a bit while I get a job . . . you should probably look for one, too.”

“No shit.”

Billy snickers at her curt response and went on to talk about how his friend lived in some flat that looked like a shack, but assures her that it was pretty clean and there was more than enough room for them to stay for a while.

Mia listens to Billy tell her all about their new stomping grounds with underplayed excitement. She faces him full on and laughs at all of his jokes about his friend’s ineptness at picking up chicks in pubs. While he was explaining something about particular parts he needs to fix up his car, she stretches her arm to grab a beer from the backseat and then proceeds to pop the tab open. After a while, they both attempt to have a conversation and it turns into one that was about nothing in general, but meant something to both of them because they learned more about each other based on the exchange of shared information. As the car ride continues, Mia eventually drifts off to sleep.

It was the car door slamming shut and the sound of other cars passing that roused Mia from her nap. She sees that Billy had stopped at a petrol station and was either in the convenience store or taking a leak. She sat up and decided to stretch her legs. 

As she was walking away from the car she swore she could’ve heard a distinct Irish brogue. She shrugs it off as being delusional, (Why do you always have to think of him, you dumb cunt!) but as she continues walking she couldn’t deny that the muffled words did possess the spirited lilt the Irish have for an accent. 

It was coming from behind the side of the building where the oil change station was located. As she made her way closer and closer to the voice, it seemed to be distancing itself further away from her ears rather than growing in pitch as is expected. The Voice is on the move.

Mia hurries to catch up with it, but her prey was too quick for her anxious feet. Once she reaches the other side she sighs heavily, looks around in a frantic last effort to locate The Voice and turns on her heel.

What she didn’t realize as she was turning and walking away was that the The Voice and who he was talking to had returned from where they went to collect something. The Voice had caught a glimpse of Mia’s pulled back hair, tracksuit, those black hoops she always adorned her ears with and the scowl that was permanently etched on her face. The owner of The Voice smiles.

Mia stomps her feet all the way back to the car with a small pout on her lips. She was really annoyed with herself for obsessing over Conor to the point where she began imagining that she heard his voice at a goddamn petrol station, of all places. She just wants Billy to return so they could get as far away as possible from this place.

When Billy comes back he’s cradling two Cokes in his left arm and twirling his keys with his right hand. Mia gets in the car with an exaggerated huff, which makes Billy look at her with curiosity. He debates with himself on whether he should ask what was bugging her, but then realizes that doing such would most likely cause her to become cross with him, if she wasn’t already for some inexplicable reason. All he hoped for was that she wasn’t pissed about waiting for him for too long.

Billy placed the Cokes in the cup holders. 

“This one’s for you.”

“Thanks,” said Mia with slight irritation, too caught up in her own angst to properly show him her gratitude at his quenching of her thirst. Before her search for The Voice, she was actually going to get one for herself.

Billy pulls out of the station and turns left. Neither he nor Mia was aware that a particular station wagon a few feet away from their car was quietly creeping up from behind. Mainly because Billy was reviewing the map in search of which freeway exit to take to get closer to their destination, and Mia, with her arms crossed and her eyes scrunched together in frustration, was still stewing from the stupid chase she went on earlier. 

It wasn’t until they’d been driving for a few miles that Billy noticed the car behind them had been steadily keeping up with them on the road. Every time he would switch lanes, the car was sure to be following suit a few seconds later with at least one car between them. Billy found it odd, but thought it more a coincidence than to let paranoid feelings worm their way into his mind. And roughly around ten minutes Billy hardly noticed, especially after two cars got between them and the car switched to the other lane and practically passed them up.

Mia was still sulking on the other side of the car and had her headphones on, lost in her own world. Billy knew they’d be staying at another motel for the night and frowned at the thought of cloying sheets and decided that he’d be bringing his afghan in the room with him.

They arrive at a motel that hardly had any lighting; the ominous setting seemingly creating an atmosphere filled with shadows and spooks. Again, Billy went to secure them a room as Mia remained in the car with her music up full blast, completely zoned out.

The car that had been tailing them since the petrol station had driven past the dark motel and parks off in a car park across the street. The driver gets out slowly, surveys the scene and his eyes fall on Billy’s car. He begins to walk toward the car and is almost close enough to see Mia’s features when Billy comes stomping out with a piece of paper in his hand. The driver backs off some distance and watches the scene unfold.

Billy folds the paper in half, opens the car door, and says a few words to Mia, who had taken out her earphones and was collecting her few belongings that she’d need for the night. They both enter the room fairly quickly compared to the night before.

The driver seemed to be mulling over something that was causing him to pace very rapidly on the side of the road. He seemed to make the vital decision to get a room also and walked up to the building. 

“I’d like a room for the night,” said the Irish brogue, The Voice.

“Just you, mate?”

“Yeah.”

“Name?”

“Conor O’Reily.”

“Forty pounds.”

Hearing the cost for the room made Conor hesitate and he silently cursed himself for being impulsive and rash. The fact that here he was, yet again, messing around with this fifteen year old girl and entertaining thoughts that were borderline criminal, let alone emotionally and physically unfulfilling thanks to that one heated impromptu incident between them. Conor vowed he’d never let himself act that reckless ever again. He couldn’t afford it and wouldn’t just be in too deep – he’d be rolling in it.

But when he saw Mia at the station earlier that day, he couldn’t help himself. Something about stumbling upon Mia in what was obviously a personal moment the morning after he hooked up with her mum had caught him off guard. The look on her face once she realized she had unwittingly given him a little dance show was exhilarating. His own private dancer probably felt as exposed as his trim figure during that peculiar encounter, but bloody Mia would never fully display her embarrassment at Conor’s appraisal of her gyrating in front of the Tele when she was totally lost in the rhythm of the hip-hop video.

Connor just as easily got lost in examining her moves. It was cute because she was so perfectly unaware of his presence hence his first words to her and at the same time so utterly sensual for the same reason and the fact that the grinding of her hips on air presented an odd mixture of confusion and delight that he’d never experienced quite like that before.

That combination was the basis for his attraction toward Mia throughout their offbeat interactions with one another, which intensified and eventually developed into something that was guaranteed to spiral out of control. When he had carried Mia’s limp body from her mum’s room to her own, thinking her too intoxicated to realize what was going on, and removed her trainers and jeans, he wasn’t necessarily contemplating sleeping with her, let alone viewing her as the object of his lusty affections. That was her mother’s function in his illicit affairs at that particular interval.

It was more a scene of paternal consideration rather than anything of a sexual nature. Mia had kept up the pretense of drunken sleep and enjoyed being taken care of and grew curious at the stir of emotions that had swelled in the pit of her abdomen.

It wasn’t until the day trip to the field that he actually began to regard Mia as something of a danger to his feelings. He was playful with her and he truly believed that she had a shot doing something with her dancing. He believed in her and wanted her to realize that. Never did he think that the sequence of all their increasing contact with one another would ultimately lead to a night that he instantly regretted and yet, couldn’t feel entirely ashamed about it either. Mia had severely affected him and nearly brought him to his knees with the passion that radiated from her movements, which he knew was there all along.

Her unabashed abandon coupled with the fact that she’d chosen his favorite song to dance to languidly led him to summon her to his side. The intimacy of their proximity and the pent-up tension that had slowly been building up between them exploded into what he referred to as his ‘greatest regret.’ But, it also became his most favored memory of rejecting responsibility and accepting the more insatiable part of his personality. 

It was why he was here in this motel. It was why he followed Mia. He couldn’t be angry at her anymore because she had taken Keira. Oh yes, he was livid then, but he understood her now because she obviously gave in to her baser instincts just as often as he did. They both were too good at being troublemakers and they both just couldn’t give a fuck. 

In every facial expression and mouthy comment, Mia brazenly sported her discontent and everyone could see what a mess she was. Connor, on the other hand, had sheathed his problems with a seemingly carefree attitude, but he was still just as damaged and even more beyond repair than she ever could be.

It was why she could just pick up and leave with some boy whenever she wanted and he was forced to find a new way to fuck up his life. Since his wife vehemently demanded that he immediately leave their home in Tilbury and intended to divorce him as soon as possible, this is why he was standing here looking at the old man behind the counter and asking for a room.

Conor quickly pays the man and goes to check out his room, which was down a couple doors from where Mia currently was staying. His eyes scan the small room and the old bed was probably rickety and would constantly make noise when he would toss and turn all night. He walks into the toilets, runs a finger over the dingy mirror, and makes a face at the lack of this motel’s cleanliness.

Since Connor wasn’t exactly sure if he should confront Mia and his disordered emotions, he figures that spending a few hours staring at the wall with a bottle of something strong in his hand from the store down the road would do him just fine until he finally decides what to do. 

Just as he walks out the door, Mia has come out of her room and closes the door in her determination to locate a fizzy machine. Conor freezes at the sight of her and sensing someone was watching her, Mia turns around. He was finally facing head-on the pinnacle of his bad decisions.


	4. Chapter 4

Mia didn’t know how long either of them had been standing there staring at each other. Frankly, she doesn’t know how to react. She wants to scream in his face and throw her arms at him, giving him the beat down that he truly deserves. His presence was aggravating and driving her up a wall. And she wants him all the more for it.

Conor takes a step toward her and Mia uncharacteristically takes a step back, which makes Conor feel even more dejected. He winces.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Mia.”

“Bit late for that.”

“I’m sorry for slapping ya, but really ya can’t blame me. She’s my daughter.”

Mia had been looking at him with vicious eyes, but as he continues on with his apology to her they were softening under the limited amber lighting that was flickering on their equally defensive stances. She feels like giving in to the part of her that completely craved him.

“Oh Mia, I just – I dunno how else to apologize. Can we talk... in my room, maybe?” 

Mia eyes him with apprehension, but eventually nods her head and follows him into what she hoped wouldn’t add on any more tension that palpably thrummed through their veins and harbored in the space between them.

Conor shuts the door and turns to face Mia to decode how she was feeling about this whole situation. She appeared to be surveying his room with discomfort, as if she’d stepped into the devil’s lair, but quickly donned a mask of indifference once she noticed his scrutiny.

“So, got any drink?”

“I was about to get something.”

“Alright then,” Mia replies as she plops down on his bed which creaked a little under her weight. Conor guesses right about the status of his bed, but can’t figure where to take this encounter with Mia.

“Right then. Be back in five.”

Mia responds by sighing and lets her body fall all the way back on the bed, her feet still planted on the stained carpet.

Once Conor was outside, he breathes a sigh of relief. He walks to the store quickly, eager to get back to Mia. He feels like if he is gone for too long she would become frustrated and head back to her own room. Conor grabs the first thing he sees in the store, pays for it, and heads back.

He frantically twists the cap open and gulps down enough to give him a head rush. His heart rate is accelerating and his body temperature is getting warmer.

As he opens the door to his room, he sees Mia still splayed out on the bed. She seems to be heavily contemplating something, most likely the situation they both were currently in, together. Once he closes the door, she looks up and gives him a small smile.

“I’m only giving you the time of day because you have alcohol.”

Conor lightly chuckles and offers her the bottle. She takes it from his hand with a look of consideration, probably recalling the night they had together when everything fell to pieces.

“Here we are again.”

Her statement reinforcing the unavoidable and she laughs at the parallel between how this night was shaping up to be just like the other one.

“Here we are again,” Conor echoes, knowing when to admit defeat and just accept that he’s a hopeless fool.

“Why are you here?” Mia asks with a swig of the booze.

“I got shafted.” 

Mia snorts.

“Serves you right.” 

Conor grabs the bottle back, raises it to his lips and reflexively says, “Cheers,” and swallows a little less than half.

“Hey! Don’t hog it all.”

“I bought it." 

He raises the bottle to his lips then Seem to always be losing money with you around.”

Mia rolls her eyes and grins at his grouchy demeanor.

“So, what are we gonna do?”

Conor hadn’t entirely thought this through. He should’ve known it would come to this.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you ever?”

“Not really.”

“That’s just great.”

“No one ever has their shit sorted completely.”

He drinks again and as he hands it back to Mia, his fingers graze hers with a soft touch that sends an electric shock through each of their hands. Both of their eyes flick up and they stare each other down with all the intensity they could muster from the familiarity of the situation.

Conor has to force himself to turn his eyes away. Mia gradually lowers her eyes and seems to find her nail beds quite interesting. 

“I’m not gonna tell you that this wasn’t what I had in mind when I asked you to the room -”

Mia looks up at this with an indescribable expression.

“I mean, it wasn’t like I had anything planned out either but I don’t want you thinkin’ that that was all that was on my mind. I’m not that much of a prick, Mia.”

Mia snorts at that. Conor smirks in response. The bed creaks again as Mia sat up and studies Conor’s battle-worn mug. There were many laugh lines around his eyes and his skin was rough-hewn, but he still managed to be roguishly good looking. His eyes look beyond lost. Here was a grown man, his life gone to shit, and he was looking to a fifteen year old girl for guidance.

“You’re a wreck,” was all Mia could come up with as she crosses her arms across her chest as if it could protect her from anything mistake her hands were bound to make. Conor trains his eyes to her study her dark ones and doesn’t even make an attempt to disagree with her; he has no energy to fight with her.

“Then there’s no more surprises between us,” he says with a shrug.

“Guess not.” 

They still were looking at each one another so intensely. Conor slowly sets the bottle on the ground, makes his way from the chair he had lodged himself in once he got in the door and approaches Mia on the bed.

“Don’t say ‘Here we are again.’”

“Wasn’t gonna say it”

“What were you going to say?”

“Nothin’”

“But you're –“

Mia slams her mouth on his and pulls his head closer to hers by pulling on his hair. Conor sucks on her bottom lip and can’t believe he was reliving his ‘greatest regret’ and fully enjoying the hell out of it. They were feverishly grabbing at one another, hands battling, searching. It was all too much.

Conor takes a breath and continues his assault on her neck. The privacy of the motel room and the fact that neither of them have anywhere to go at this particular moment give them ample time to explore each other more efficiently and thoroughly than the last time they were intimate.

There wasn't any jealous inquiries about Billy this time around, only his harsh grunts and her plaintive moans at his ministrations. It was better this time and she didn’t think it was possible for already amazing sex to amount to the pleasure she was experiencing now.

Conor gives up caring about the repercussions and gives in because there was nothing else he’d rather indulge himself with than succumbing to his instincts.

They consecutively sink into a lust-induced oblivion, Mia first and then Conor not a second after. Mia reaches for his face and kisses the side of his mouth gently. Conor is stunned by this unexpected display of tenderness and responds by brushing the hair off her face. During their activities, he liberated her now tangled hair from its usual ponytail and then proceeded to run his hands through her hair along with pulling on it while she scratched her nails across his back. 

She gives him a small smile and then lowers her eyes from his searching stare while her voice laced with agitation asked,

“You’re not gonna leave this time, are ya?’’

Her eyes flick back up with an accusatory look that hid her initial concern. 

“Not this time. But we can’t keep up with this. It’s not right, Mia. It never will be and it can’t work.”

“I know . . . but we don’t have to worry about that right now.”

“Easy for you to say. If the police bust open this door right now I’d be hauled off to prison and my life would REALLY be shit.”

“I would say that I started it . . . this time, anyway.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he whispers.

Conor sighs and can’t think of anything else to say. He kisses her and it progresses to a second round, this time ending in complete contentment as Mia slides under Conor’s arm and burrows her face in his chest while Conor tiptoes his fingers lightly across the crown of her head.

It was not like Conor to agonize too much about his actions, especially when they were as fulfilling as this thing with Mia turned out to be. He was sick of wrestling with morality. It was time to give himself fully over to depravity that knew no bounds. Mia’s enthusiasm and tolerance of the situation seemed to be in concurrence with this thought and with that he dozes off with Mia following soon after.


	5. Chapter 5

They wake to the sound of cars on the street and the faint noise of birds chirping. Mia has to focus her eyes since the alcohol had muddled her brain. Conor has her pulled tight in his arms, but draws away from her with the pretense of stretching, but he would only admit to himself that he felt guilty again.

“Hey.”

“Mornin’.”

“Sleep well?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

They stay in bed for a good half hour and Conor finally gets up to have a shower. Mia tosses Conor’s shirt on and peeks through the blinds to look out the window. It was fairly sunny out and she feels optimistic, as much as a person like her can feel optimistic, at least. 

She finishes getting dressed and goes to see Conor. She opens the door as he was toweling off and he offers her a small smile, which quickly turns into a frown once he looks at her wearing his shirt.

“I hope I didn’t ruin you, girl.”

“You’re not the worst thing that’s happened to me.”

“If you say so.”

They look at each other for a few minutes, neither knowing what to say to one another until eventually they both blurt out words at the same time.

“I think I’m gonna go, no point in drawing this out-”

“I followed you here.”

He scratches behind his ear in embarrassment.

Mia stops and looks at him closely, which prompts Connor to continue.

“From the petrol station.” Mia’s face holds no surprise.

“You knew.”

“I heard your voice.”

Connor grins that toothy grin of his.

“Did you? You recognize my voice anywhere now, do ya?”

She smacks his arm lightly.

“Don’t be a dry lunch, Conor.” 

His smile doesn’t seem to be capable of getting any bigger, but it does after she said that.

They stay silent again for a few moments and then Conor sees something in Mia’s eyes and then he knows it was time to end this.

“Goodbye, Mia.” 

He kisses her cheek and rubs her shoulder.

“You keep dancin’, yeah?”

She nods, distracted.

*** 

Mia walks outside not quite sure what she was feeling. She doesn’t feel changed from being with Conor again, but she doesn’t feel the same as she did before she agreed to follow him into his room. 

Billy is still asleep when she creeps back into the room. She goes to have a shower and when she gets out, she takes a long look at herself in the mirror. She doesn’t recognize this girl, but she thinks maybe she likes her. Just a little bit.

When Billy wakes up, they take off and within three hours make it to Cardiff. Mia can hardly wait to set foot into her new life. Being with Connor again was an initiation into this different atmosphere and she is so close to real independence. This was it. No looking back now.

Fin.


End file.
